Batman: The Phoenix Project
by HadrasVorshoth
Summary: Probably a one-shot look into how Batman could decide to drop the cape. Not really focused on any point in comic timeline, partially written due to the feeling after finishing Arkham City for the first time. May be the angstiest thing I have and will ever write in parts.


Batman: The Phoenix Project

Wayne was pacing in the Bat-Cave, thinking hard. He had been working for decades now on reducing crime in the city, all in the name of his parents.  
But something was different. The death of the Joker after the events of Arkham was... Eye-opening.  
Harley Quinn was obviously pregnant with the Joker's child, he picked up the clues of that while he was busy, you know, the whole saving the world thing.  
Wayne knew that this child would probably be trained up and used against him. That said, perhaps it would make Harley a bit more balanced, as she'd have to be careful to raise a child.  
The Riddler was still on the loose, Wayne didn't have enough time to solve all those riddles, Strange's scheme was taking too much of his attention. Some of the puzzles he had made are still in the city, cordoned off, the smell of the people the Riddler killed in there beginning to get concerting.

Too much to do, not enough time...

He had contacted various entities to help out with the reconstruction project. The Arkham City project had caused huge amounts of the city to be totally and utterly ruined. Since everyone not a inmate of Arkham was relocated outside its limits, there was very little desire for anyone to return to the Old City.  
A City that ended up being used for everybody who didn't have a home or couldn't afford to get one and be caught in the red tape.  
Arkham City had barely changed.

But Batman had. He had killed Ra's Al Ghul [note check spelling], although since the body was not recovered, he supposed he hadn't truly killed him.  
But still.  
Batman had blood on his hands.  
Directly, that is.  
After all, strictly speaking every second that the Joker had remained alive, the more and more people were put in danger. Any one of his 'villains'.

This was getting out of hand.  
He looked around the Cave.  
The suits of the many Robins, all the way going back to the first Robin, now Nightwing.  
He had ruined that kid's life.[note can't remember the name right now check later]. Made a copy of himself, but without the discipline.  
A statue of a cat, with jewels for eyes. Catwoman. Need to stop her flirting with me, it gets creepy sometimes.  
The many Batmobiles. So much time and money spent, and half of them have been useless.  
The experimental Batmissile. Oh how he hoped he would never use it.

Batman looked around his cave, and noticed for the first time in years that it no longer had any deposits of bat guano on the bottom of it. The bats who had once inspired the young traumatised Bruce Wayne hadn't been in the Cave for years, leaving after one of his many fights with a villain from his Rogue's Gallery breaking into his cave... It was The Penguin, right? The bats had left because it was too dangerous for them.

There was something symbolic in that, he was sure.

Bruce Wayne stared at the mask as he cradled his costume in his arms, scarred from countless fights.  
_What am I? What have I done?_  
The city was still as dangerous as ever.  
Trying to inspire the fear he once felt into his foes was getting tougher. The 21st century was soon coming, and Wayne was beginning to realise that the Bat-Man was no longer effective.  
_They get afraid, but... Are they? Really? Would that stop them fighting? Or does it just make them angrier when they're beaten?_.

Wayne had learnt many martial arts in a very short space of time when training to become the Batman. As such, he was rather lacking in detailed knowledge of a lot of them. He skimmed through to attain vengeance sooner. However, that said, he had picked up various techniques to calm one's mind and focus.  
He closed his eyes and let his thoughts go blank, a form of meditative exercise he did whenever he found himself unsure of his goals and motives.  
Then he opened them.  
"I have been such an idiot." he muttered, before getting changed back into his business suit.  
He threw the Batsuit onto the floor.

It will no longer be needed.

_  
Gotham City's Mayor's Office.

"Sir, I wish to assist in the revitalisation of what was recently Arkham City."  
"Mr. Wayne? I thought you were dead, after that whole fiasco?"  
"No, Hady. Still alive, still trying to make sense of things. Listen, what plans do you have with the City? I bet that my people way Wayne enterprises can make it a 100% at least more efficient. I want to see if we can get a state where we're comparable to Metropolis."  
"Impossible! That would take billions and billions of dollars!"  
"Sir, how rich am I?"  
"Point taken. And you have done some good work in Central Gotham a few years ago... Very well, what do you suggest."  
"Well, first we need to tear down all the old buildings. We need to remove Gotham's... Darker side. To do that, we're going to need things to be brighter, newer, futuristic. We're also going to need to relocate the old Police Station and other service structures to be more accessible. Everything is going to need to change."  
"But Mr. Wayne... Won't my constituents be unhappy with a change in style?"  
"I have copies of every petition of the past decade to revitalise Gotham. None have ever worked, primarily due to the costs involved. Some of your predecessors directly prevented me from funding it, due to a potential conflict of interest when I was trying to run for Mayor at the time, something about an unfair advantage or some rot. This city is more than just a political game, sir. It is a living, breathing city, and it's been soaked in the tar of corruption and death for too long."  
"Watch it, Wayne. You're beginning to get cocky."  
"I can afford it. As can you, judging by how many times you get visited by 'Community Figures' each week."  
"I sa-"  
"No. Don't try to deny it. You've been taking bribes from every wazoo and glom that has ever come into this building. The records are obvious to anyone who knows where to look. However, if we can make this city WORK, fully and properly, then you'll never be struggling to pay your daughter's tuition fees for university ever again. You'll never be struggling for a car, or trying to get a table at a nice restaurant. Mr. Hady... The time for corrupt mayors is over. Work with me on this one thing, and we can make this city live again."  
"Huh."

Sebastian Hady got up, and looked to the large window behind him.

There was silence. Bruce waited quietly, mentally counting to thirty.  
At the 23rd count, Hady turned around.  
"You're right, Wayne. You have the capacity to help this city. I'm not going to deny, at least, unofficially, that I've been taking money under the table, but in all honesty... It's too dangerous to do that any more. These gangs are getting too powerful thanks to that. Wayne... If you think you can fix this city... I'll give you every single thing you need that I have."  
"Good, I'll take your wife then."  
"Huh?"  
"Sorry, joke, didn't come out right, popped into my head."  
"Oh."

And then the Phoenix Project was born.

**A.N. I do not own any of this. Would be cool, but I don't, so no profits.**

**Also, I strangely seem to know very little about the Batmanverse beyond the movies. I feel I should know more, but the comics, they seem so... forbidding, ya know. I might expand on this later, was really a one-shot that popped into my head one day, where a melancholy Batman decided to give up the cowl and cape in exchange for using his insanely high amounts of money (for comparison, an estimation of the technologies used by Batman here: /2012/07/30/how-much-would-it-cost-to-be-batman/ shows that his suit and everything else in one movie would work out to be $682,480,750. For comparison, it's not that much lower than the cost of Tony Stark's Iron Man suit here: 8301-17938_105-57481591-1/cost-of-being-iron-man-$1.6-billion-smackaroos/ 1.6 billion dollars isn't a great deal more than ****six hundred eighty-two million four hundred eighty thousand seven hundred fifty** dollars. Once you're multimillion, it doesn't seem that big a leap to go billion.) So Bruce has OODLES of cash that's being wasted on this Bat thing, ya know?  


**Timelinewise... Eh. This sorta is in its own little bubble due to my lack of detailed knowledge of the comics. After the events of A universe's version of Arkham City, but not necessarily the one in the game we had recentlyish. Everything that looks weirdly out of character is probably due to me misinterpreting a Wikipedia.  
**

**Now to write a second chapter where Angels fall on Gotham and a group named NERV relocate it to Gotham-2 and defend it from Angels with Batbots...  
**

**Or not.  
**


End file.
